The ten FIFA nominees for the Puskas Award 2012 (or ‘Goal of the Year’ if you’d prefer) have been announced, and the shortlist looks like this y’all…

1. Hatem Ben Arfa, NEWCASTLE vs Bolton…

2. Gaston Maella, NACIONAL POTOSI vs The Strongest…

3. Radamel Falcao, ATLETICO MADRID vs America de Cali…

4. Olivia Jimenez, MEXICO vs Switzerland…

5. Lionel Messi, ARGENTINA vs Brazil…

6. Moussa Sow, FENERBAHCE vs Galatasaray…

7. Miroslav Stoch, FENERBAHCE vs Genclerbirligi…

8. Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu, GHANA vs Guinea…

9. Eric Hassli, VANCOUVER vs Toronto…

10. Neymar, SANTOS vs Internacional…

Strange that Papiss Cisse’s banana volley against Chelsea doesn’t get a look in. Seems like FIFA haven’t even chose the best Newcastle goal from last year, but hey ho, these things happen.

Neymar won the Puskas Award for 2011 with his tricky-dicky dash goal against Flamengo…

…and we wouldn’t be overly surprised if he wins it again this time round what with him being a bit of a FIFA darling – though our personal favourite of that particular batch is Gaston Maella’s instinctive, unorthodox scorpion volley.

Did anyone catch Demba Ba’s header form outside of the box for Senegal? I forgot which country it was against but it was a real beauty, beastly. I can’t find the link either. Someone put it up if you may! I’d vote for that one.

i thought it was ben arfas goal against blackburn that was nominated? both are brilliant! so him with either of them! and that header from outside the box was awesome! that was cisse aswell though i think. should just be goals from newcastle players!

[…] Former Chelsea and current Fenerbahce winger Miroslav Stoch has been bestowed with the 2012 Puskas Award after his superbly effortless volley against Genclerbirligi was selected by visitors to FIFA.com, FIFA’s Youtube page and francefootball.fr as their goal of the year from the 10-goal shortlist. […]